He discovers a strange link between the human physiognomy and psyche, with implications that border on the mystical.

Cahill picked up the Alfred P. Sloan prize for films focusing on science at Sundance for the movie -- the same prize he won three years ago for Another Earth.

After Sundance I Origin was picked up by Fox Searchlight Pictures for worldwide distribution.

The film opens a 10-day program featuring more than 200 films in a range of competition and focus sections at the festival, including for the first time ever in main competition an animated film: New York-based Latvian filmmaker Signe Baumane’s Rocks in My Pockets, a “funny film about depression."

There are also retrospectives of the work of three international directors: Italian director Elio Petri, who died aged 52 in 1982, "a neglected legend…whose work is virtually unknown to domestic audiences;" Indian screenwriter, director and producer, Anurag Kashyap; and Britain's filmmaker Ben Rivers.

The festival, which is noted both for its large audiences of young people who camp out in and around the spa town's parks and sports grounds and star-pulling power -- Robert De Niro, John Travolta and Sharon Stone have all trod the red carpet -- runs through July 12.